


The Elf Queen

by Northern_Lady



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Accepting Help, Avengers - Freeform, Comic book character, Friendship, Hostage Situation, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Hydra (Marvel), Kings & Queens, Mild Language, Possible Romance, Recovery, Strong Women, just because, rare comic book characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-05
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-02-28 19:24:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13278261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northern_Lady/pseuds/Northern_Lady
Summary: One of Asgard's allies needs Thor's help in an unexpected way. Intended to be a fairly short story.





	1. Chapter 1

New Years Eve at the Avengers facility was relaxed. Vision and Wanda were off in a quiet corner chatting while Nat, Steve, Thor, and Clint played a card game over drinks. A few other guests were doing various feats of strength including arm wrestling, while Tony and Bruce had immersed themselves in a shared computer project. The evening was going smoothly until Tony spoke up in a tone that was not nearly as relaxed as the atmosphere. 

“Oh shit!” He mumbled, focused on something on the screen in front of him. “Thor, you need to come see this.” 

Curious, Thor got to his feet and went to Tony’s side. 

“So I got this email just now,” Tony said. “It just said, Urgent message for Thor of Asgard. Please forward attachment. The attachment was this video file.” 

The video began in what was obviously an interrogation room.Two people sat at a table, a man in a suit, and a woman was cuffed to the table on the opposite side of him. The woman didn’t look quite human. She had long blond hair and pointed ears. On the wall of the room, clearly visible to all, was a HYDRA logo. 

“For the record, state your name,” The man began, his accent German. The woman only stared at him. The man took a nail from his pocket. “I understand your people are poisoned by iron. It only takes one prick. You will tell me what I wish to know.” 

“My name is Aelsa, Queen of Alfheim. Just because I tell you my name does not mean I can help you.” 

“But you’ll have to,” The man smiled. “And don’t think for a moment that your being queen offers you any protection. We have intel on you. Your people are peaceful, pacifists. They will not come for you.” 

“No, but my allies will.” 

“Your allies believe you to be dead, destroyed by Malekith before he came here to this planet. No one who could help even knows to look for you. You will tell us what we need to know.” The HYDRA man said. 

“I can not tell you what I do not know,” Aelsa said calmly. “You asked for coordinates. I know nothing of your astronomy and I would let you kill me before I would tell you the location of my people.” 

The man almost laughed. “It isn’t your people we care to find. It’s the dwarves. They make weapons of great power, don’t they?” 

“I have never seen such weapons,” Aelsa said, uncomfortably. 

“It doesn’t matter. We know they exist. Do you know the location of the planet?” 

“No,” Aelsa said, most unconvincingly. 

The hydra man got up from the table, opened the door, and waved in a burly guard. “This is Karl. His job is assisting in confessions. We call him the Priest. You may confess to him now or later. It is your choice.” 

Aelsa glared at the two men. “I was the wife of Malekith the Accursed. You think I am afraid of pain? You can not hurt me more than he did.” 

“Oh but we can. Believe me, we can.” 

The video cut to a new scene. Aelsa was sitting in front of a computer. Her face was badly bruised. Her clothes were torn and there was a man dead on the floor behind her. “If you receive this message Mr Stark, please get it to Thor of Asgard. In spite of what he may have been told, a number of my people did survive Malekith. Asgard is our only ally and I can not allow these people, these monsters, anywhere near dwarves. I’m not sure where I am on your world. I heard someone say they would go to Dresden in the morning, if that is any clue. Perhaps you trace where this message was sent from. I don’t have much time. They will punish me for what I’ve done to the guard. They have eleven of my people at this place. I can not get them all out without assistance. Please, send help.” The video ended there. 

“What was that? Did you know her?” Tony asked. 

“I know of her,” Thor said. “I have seen her at distance once at feast my father held. We have never spoken. Queen Aelsa of the Fay was said to have perished along with most of her people when Malekith came to power. The light elves were always our allies. Malekith tried to change that by forcibly marrying her and taking over her world. If she needs help, I will help her. How do we find this HYDRA facility?” 

**************

Finding the facility wasn’t exactly difficult. It just took a long time. By the time Thor and the other Avengers broke into the hydra complex, nine days had passed. They captured or killed all the hydra agents and soon began finding the bodies of elves throughout the building. 

“I counted seven,” Clint said from the end of a long dim hallway. 

“Another one over here,” Nat called out. 

Thor turned a corner and found his path was blocked. “I have three more here,” He said sadly. 

“Well, in case no one can do the math, that’s eleven.” Stark spoke up. “We’ve searched every floor. Queen Elsa isn’t here.” 

“It’s Queen Aelsa, and perhaps you haven’t noticed but neither is the man they called the Priest.” Thor reminded them. 

“If he escaped with her as a hostage he would have taken her to another hydra cell,” Steve said. “Except you guys keep telling me there are no more hydra cells. So where did he go?” 

“It shouldn’t matter,” Thor said. “Light elves are stronger than humans. She is vulnerable to iron, but otherwise, out in the open she should be able to escape him.” 

Steve gave Thor a look. “This is Hydra we’re talking about. Do you really think a guy code named The Priest isn’t enhanced somehow?” 

“We have to find them,” Thor said, frustrated. “Both to keep hydra away from dwarf weapons and for Aelsa’s sake.” 

“Then we should start looking,” Wanda said.


	2. Chapter 2

Karl kept a tight grip on Aelsa as he fled with her through Exit B, into the parking garage and then to a black cargo van. He kept his arm mostly around her neck as he dragged her the entire distance. She struggled against him, hardly able to breath but she was no match for him. Karl was not an ordinary human. He opened the van, roughly threw her into the vehicle, and slammed the door shut behind her. 

As Karl came around the van to get into the driver’s seat Aelsa was frantically checking the doors for an escape. All of them were locked. There were windows up front though. Aelsa made a dive for the passenger door window and hit it with all the strength in her fists. The window didn’t even crack. 

Karl climbed into the driver’s seat and smiled at her. “The windows are not glass,” He said, amused at her. “Even I can not break them. I can however, break you. So sit down and behave while I drive.” 

Aelsa did as she was told and sat down. But behave? She had no intention of doing that. She kept her eyes out the window as they drove through the city, trying to keep track of where they were going somehow, and searching for any means of escape. This moron was not going to find out where the dwarves lived and he was not going to be the end of her. She wouldn’t let that happen. 

They drove for a long while before finally pulling in at some sort of warehouse. Karl got out of the van, came around and wrenched open her door. He reached for her as if to drag her along with him as he’d done before. She slapped his hand away. 

“Don’t,” She said firmly. “I will follow you.” 

Karl grunted and turned to cross the near empty parking lot. “Don’t fall behind,” He called back. “I am faster than you.” 

Aelsa sighed and followed him. He spoke the truth. He was indeed stronger and faster than any human had a right to be and sometimes when he had touched her he was very cold, like ice. She wasn’t sure what had made him like that but she knew it wasn’t natural for a human. Hydra had done something to him. 

Once inside the warehouse she followed Karl past multiple pallets and storage crates. None of them were open. She watched carefully as they passed them for anything that could be a weapon but all the boxes were nailed shut, all the crates locked. They continued to a door along one of the side walls. He opened the door. “You wait here.” He said simply. She went in and he closed the door behind her. 

Aelsa found herself inside a bathroom. There was one toilet, one sink, a large mirror, and no windows. She stopped in front of the mirror a moment. Her pale blue silken tunic was torn on one shoulder. Her darker blue breeches had bloodstains on one knee as did her brown boots on the toes. Her hair was a mess and her face was dirty and bruised. The sight irritated her. This was no state for a queen to be in. No matter what these people did to her, she would not allow them to ruin her dignity. Malekith had taught her that. As much as she had hated him, from him she had learned to bravely face her fears, to endure her pain with dignity and grace and not terror. Never terror. She would do the same for these puny humans. She would not let them break her. Aelsa went to the sink and washed her face. She rebraided her long blond hair and found some paper towels to wash the blood from her boots. There was little she could do about the torn tunic. Then she turned and faced to door to wait for Karl’s return. Whatever he had in mind for her, she would be ready.


	3. Chapter 3

It had taken nearly an hour to track down the video footage showing the van leaving the facility and track the van to its destination. The warehouse was confirmed to be owned by a company with possible ties to Hydra. Two hours after Aelsa had been taken, the Avengers arrived at the warehouse where it looked like she was being held. 

“Looks like there are three entrances,” Steve spoke up. “We should split up and cover them all.” 

The warehouse was huge. With three Avengers standing guard at the doors, the others began searching the many many rows of stuff. Tony was flying amongst the rows trying to make it faster and Clint had found a high point to climb up where he could get a better view. 

“Guys, I got something here!” Nat called out. Steve and Thor met her where she was, at a bathroom. “Look at this trash can.” 

The all saw what she did. A lot of paper towels with blood on them. 

“Maybe she was here and tried to clean herself up,” Nat said. 

“Well where is she now?” Steve asked. “We’ve been watching this place. No one’s gone out any of the doors.” 

“Then there must be another way out. A way not so obvious as a door.” Thor said. 

“The only way out at this point is down,” Nat said with realization. “One of those storage crates probably isn’t actually storage.” She pushed her com button. “Tony?” 

“I heard. I’m on it.” He said. 

***********************

With Aelsa’s sensitive hearing, she’d heard Tony Stark fly in. Apparently Karl’s enhancements included his hearing because moments later he had burst into the bathroom, grabbed her by the arm and tugged her off down one of the aisles in the warehouse. 

“Don’t make a sound!” Karl said before Aelsa could even think about screaming for help. To be quite honest, screaming for help was the furthest thing from her mind. She might have thought of it eventually but the very idea of screaming in terror for someone to rescue her was just not how her brain operated. She was still looking for a weapon as he dragged her along. 

They eventually reached a crate marked 68C and Karl had pulled off the padlock and opened up the crate. He dragged her inside and pulled the crate shut behind them, dead bolting it from the inside. It was pitch black. Aelsa couldn’t see anything. Then Karl was moving again, taking her with him. 

“Stairs,” He said, too late for her. She fell forward onto his shoulder. He was already three steps below her and her long blonde braid had fallen over his shoulder. In that moment she knew what she had to do. She acted quickly, grabbing her braid, wrapping it around his neck and pulling tightly. 

Karl lurched forward, dove forward really, in an effort to throw Aelsa off of him. She clung tightly even as he dove headlong down the stairs. The stairs seemed to go on a long while. They tumbled over and over all the while Aelsa refused to let go. By the time they stopped falling, Karl had stopped struggling. Aelsa was too smart to let him go just because he had stopped moving. What if he wasn’t truly dead? What if he had healing abilities and would wake later? She didn’t dare to move. She kept her grip on her hair tight around his neck and waited in the darkness. 

It seemed like an eternity waiting in that darkness. Then there was light coming towards her, and a voice. “Aelsa?” 

The light was so bright at first that she could not see him. He got closer and lowered the light. “Thor?” 

“You have killed your captor?” he said, and if she was correct, he almost sounded proud. He reached out a hand to help her up. 

As Aelsa unwound her hair from Karl’s neck and loosened her grip, she found that her hands hurt. Her entire body hurt from the stress of the ordeal. She reached out and let Thor help her to her feet. 

“Are you injured?” He asked her. 

“I am not. What of my people? Did they survive?” she asked him. 

Thor looked sad. “We were too late. I am sorry.” 

Aelsa started to cry. “Then I have failed them.” 

“You did everything you could for them,” Thor told her. “If anyone failed them it was not you. Come, my friends are waiting for you,” Thor said, beginning to lead the way back up the long stairs. 

Tears in her eyes Aelsa look back at the man she had killed. She had never been taught combat, had never been in a war, had never killed anyone until recently. She wasn’t sure how she would live with these memories. Killing was against everything her people stood for. She found she didn’t have the strength to move. “I can’t…” Aelsa said simply, not even having an explanation. 

“Then allow me to carry you?” 

She nodded and Thor carried her all the way up the long stairway, out of the warehouse and into the sun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One more chapter or let it end here?


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I added one more chapter with a little hurt/comfort and cuddles.

It was Thor who brought Aelsa back to the Avengers facility while the rest of the Avengers stayed behind at the warehouse. It was their belief that Karl had most likely sent for help of some sort and there would be more Hydra agents arriving at any time to provide him an extraction. If anyone showed up to be Karl’s backup, the Avengers would be waiting for them. 

When Thor bent down to place Aelsa on one of the sofas in the Avengers facility, she was reluctant to let go of him. He decided it might be best not to go far so he took a seat next to her. 

“What happened?” he asked her. “How did you come to be a prisoner of Hydra’s?” 

“I was seeking shelter for my people. Malekith wreaked havoc on our world. Only a few hundred of us survived him. Most of them have taken shelter on Vanheim but I have continued to search for a place more fitting for us. I and eleven other came to Midgard...Falyse, one of my friends and counselors took a great fall from a tall building and survived as easily as any of our people might have done. Her fall got the attention of Hydra and days later they began chasing after us. Once they caught us...I was with them for seven weeks before I sent the message to Tony Stark. I knew from the humans television that he was a friend of yours...I knew of no other way…” she said apologetically. 

“No, what you did was right. I am only sorry I did not find you sooner.” 

Aelsa nodded, tears in her eyes. “My communication crystal was taken from me the first day. I have no means of returning to Vanheim without it.” 

“I would take you back by way of Asgard but the bifrost has been destroyed,” Thor explained. “In the meantime, follow me?” 

Aelsa followed him to the door of the women’s locker. Thor stood outside the door. “My friends Natasha and Wanda have clothes in there that I am sure they would share. Perhaps not clothes fit for a queen but at least they are clean. When you are finished, I will find a meal for you.” 

“Thank you,” Aelsa said, genuinely grateful. It was only after she had gotten into the shower that it all began to hit her. Her people were dead, she had been abused and tortured for weeks, she had killed two men, and now she was alone with no means of ever getting home. She didn’t remember collapsing onto the floor of the shower. She wasn’t aware of how cold the water actually was. She wasn’t aware of how long she stayed there weeping. 

“Aelsa?” Thor’s voice broke into her troubled thoughts. She was only dimly aware of it. “Are you alright?” He approached the shower. “You have been in here near an hour. If you do not answer me I will be forced to open the curtain.” 

Aelsa tried to find her voice. Or she thought she did. Words would not come. All that was left was inner pain. The curtain opened. Thor reached in and turned off the water. “This water is frigid,” she heard him say. He removed his red cloak, and tossed it over her before ever really looking at her. He picked her up, wrapped in his cloak, and carried her out of the locker room. 

She came to herself a long while later and found that she was curled up on Thor’s lap, still wrapped up in his cloak, still shivering. “What happened?” she asked him, slightly confused. 

“I think perhaps you had a moment of panic while in the shower,” Thor explained. 

“I suppose I must have,” Aelsa agreed. She looked down at herself, wrapped in only his cloak and entirely unclothed underneath. He hair was still wet, her fingertips were purple from cold, and she had been unaware of herself for a long while judging by the darkness now outside the window. And in all that time Thor had done nothing but hold on to her. Anyone from Hydra would have hurt her. She had already experienced that. Her own husband would have done even worse. Not Thor. He was good to her, even when she was vulnerable. 

Thor started to get up as if to let her go. Without thinking, Aelsa responded by clinging to him more tightly. 

“Are you not hungry?” Thor said, concerned. He did nothing to push her away. 

“Hunger is not my chief concern right now,” she said quite honestly. 

“Then what is?” 

Aelsa didn’t answer right away. She didn’t like admitting such a weakness. “Safety,” she whispered the word. “Only safety.” 

“Then you have it. I will not allow Hydra or anyone to harm you again,” Thor said firmly. “But my protection will do you little good if I let you starve.” 

Aelsa nodded her agreement and this time when he tried to stand and let her go, she made no protests. Thor left the room so she could get dressed and he soon returned with a bowl of soup and tea. After she had eaten and the dishes were set aside she was simply exhausted. 

“Where am I to sleep?” Aelsa asked. 

“There is a bunk room here in this building but I think a bunk is not a fitting place for a queen,” Thor told her. 

“Nor a king. Where do you sleep?” 

“I have an apartment in the city. If you are asking…” Thor trailed off, unsure of the words he wanted to use. 

“I wasn’t. Not really, I just…” 

“You are still worried about your safety,” he said, understanding. 

“There is no reason to be, I’m sure,” she said trying to reassure herself. “Your Avengers will arrest the rest of the Hydra agents and there is no one else here on Midgard who can truly hurt me. I am accustomed to nightmares for years as it is. I will be quite alright.” 

“Nightmares...because of Malekith?” Thor asked her. 

She did not answer that question. 

“I had heard that he had married you to try and align the light and dark elves. Seven months later I heard your world was laid waste,” Thor said. 

Aelsa nodded. “Yes, he was my husband for seven months. He treated me with...brutality.” she swallowed. “It has been four years and I have yet to shake the terror he left with me.” 

Thor looked saddened at her words. “I am afraid I can not offer you accommodations befitting your station. There are no palaces here but if you would prefer to stay at my apartment rather than the bunkroom here, I would gladly share.” 

She nodded, tears in her eyes. “Yes, I would like that. Thank you.” 

That night Aelsa woke in Thor’s bed with a nightmare. Thor had slept on the sofa but heard her screams and came to the doorway of the bedroom. 

“You are still bruised from your ordeal with Hydra,” he said simply. “Those bruises will heal soon enough, but what of the scars on the inside?” 

“I don’t know,” Aelsa said. “I only know that it was easier earlier today when I was wrapped in your cloak, everything was easier to bear.” 

He took a few steps into the room, then hesitated. “Are you saying…?” 

“Yes, I’d rather not sleep alone.” 

So she didn’t sleep alone. Instead she slept embraced by the god of thunder.


End file.
